How the 100s of All Four Strokes Differ

Hey swimmers! This is coach Milo.

Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from you all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"How the 100s of All Four Strokes Differ"

Summary:

Building on the previous answer, Milo compares the 100 across all four strokes and explains that the biggest difference is oxygen intake. In breaststroke and backstroke you're breathing almost constantly, so the way you take in air and race those events differs from butterfly and freestyle, where you might breathe every two strokes. Despite that, he says the training is largely the same across strokes because every 100 is fundamentally a sprint: you need front-end speed and the ability to hit your goal 25 and goal 50 splits on the way to your target time. He stresses lactic and VO2 max training as the key, encouraging swimmers to repeatedly race the stroke they care about so they build both a tolerance for the burn and an understanding of what their technique does when fatigue sets in.

Answer:

So the question is what the differences are in training the 100 for the different strokes. When you think about it, in the breaststroke and the backstroke you're pretty much breathing all the time, so the way you race and take in oxygen for those two is a lot different from the butterfly or the freestyle, where you're breathing every two, for example. But in any case, they're very much the same in how you train them. You've got to have that front-end speed, because you're a sprinter, and it is a sprint. You've got to be able to swim fast and do whatever it takes to achieve your goal 25 or goal 50 time on the way to whatever you want to achieve in the end. At the end of the day, it's about lactic training, or VO2 max training, which is the SP1 or the blue zone, the SP1 if you're using Ernie Maglischo's energy organization system, or blue if you're doing the Michigan color system. You've got to spend time there. It's going to burn, so let it burn and build a tolerance for it. I highly recommend that if you've got goals in any one of those strokes or races, you let yourself hurt in them by doing that stroke enough times, first to build a tolerance, and second so you know what it feels like and what your technique is doing when you get tired.